July on the Farm

With the exodus of various players the new leader (by OPS) of the Bisons' offense is RJ Schrek, albeit in a considerably smaller sample. He sits at .862 in 53 at bats. Still it's a solid transition from AA, not every player carries over offensive success after a promotion. Journeyman Michael Stephanic is still humming along. Catcher Phil Clarke is having his best offensive year (.811 OPS) but he's 27 and never gets discussed when the Jays need catching help. Jonatan Clase rebounded some from a horrible June but he's still not back to what you want to see from a valuable prospect. The prospect rankings that have been updated recently seem high on Yohendrick Pinango and he did have a very good run at AA but since his promotion his OPS is just .709 - I remain skeptical. And it's been a while since I checked in on Orelvis Martinez so...After a solid May and another offensive collapse in June, Martinez had his best month of the year with an .871 OPS in July. This in spite of a mere .217 BA

On the mound, there's not much to report. Adam Macko is the guy that should be grabbing the spotlight but he continues to struggle with getting back in the strike zone. He walked SIX in four innings in his last start. Otherwise, a lot of "meh" here.

Similar to Schreck, the Fisher Cats offensive leader is a new guy recently promoted. Jackson Hornung, a 2023 16th rounder who wasn't even mentioned as a sleeper before this season earned his midseason promotion with an .855 OPS in Vancouver and he's doing even better (.863 in 29 games) since his arrival in AA. Officially listed as a catcher, he's been playing 1B almost exclusively. Third baseman Charles McAdoo was really bad at the plate in April and May but early June brought a revival. In June and July combined he's slashing .279/.335/.479/.814 which is a respectable above average line. Edinsn Paulino had his best month this year in July with a 1.037 OPS (he entered the month at .711 on the season). Cade Doughty had really struggled until July, but he too found a hot streak slashing .342/.391/.447/.838 for the month.

Trey Yesavage took a mid-season break through most of July (reminiscent of Ricky Tiedemann in a previous year, although I have not been able to confirm that he went to Florida for a review as Tiedemann did). In two starts since he's thrown 8 IP, allowed one run on four hits and zero walks while striking out 14. The rest seems to have done him good. Beyond that, a couple of relievers have earned recognition. Pat Gallagher was an 11th round pick in the '22 draft and had been working as a fairly interesting sleeper in the rotation until this year. Shifted to full-time relief, he was very effective in Vancouver (1.13 ERA, 10.44 K/9) and finally got his (overdue) promotion to New Hampshire in late June where his ERA is still under two even though he's allowing a few more runners on base. Nate Garkow is a more unusual case. A 27-year-old reliever at AA is hardly remarkable but he was signed as an undrafted free agent 13 months ago (presumably out of an indy league?) and has an interesting history. This season began with an ugly ERA (7.56) in Vancouver possibly arising from a .455 BABIP and a 7.56 BB/9, but he also had a 17.28 K/9 rate. Moved up to NH, he flipped the script. His ERA is a tidy 1.21 (.175 BABIP) and his walk rate is cut almost in half (4.03) while the K rate is down, but still quite good (13.3) - those numbers look a lot like what he put up in Dunedin in his first go in 2024, so I'm inclined to think that work in Vancouver is the outlier. At his age, I'd expect they'll want to see him in Buffalo soon.

I generally lead towards filling these reports with success stories but you can't discuss the VanC's without checking in with Arjun Nimmala. His .591 OPS in July is a mild correction from the .515 in June (albeit his OPS was .842 as late as June 20before he closed the month 0-for-27) but he's not back to the offensive force of the spring. He is, however, 7 for his last 16 (through Saturday) with his first homer since June 17, so...perhaps? In better new, last year's deadline acquisition Cutter Coffey seems to have found a groove. At the end of May his OPS was .667, but in June and July combined he's slashed .333/.410/.633/1.043 and if he keeps this up you'll be hearing his name a lot more in months and years t0 come. Then there's the curious case of Eddie Micheletti, Jr. After an all-around poor April he's been an offensive force - except when it comes to making contact. May 1 to present his line is .229/.361/.475/.836 and it's a near 30 homer pace over a full minor league season. A parting salute to Victor Arias, now in New Hampshire trying to adjust. He earned that with an .818 OPS in the first half. 

On the pitching side the standout name is Gage Stanifer who's suddenly highly ranked (now sitting 5th on two mid-season update lists when traded players are removed) so while his line is not quite as dominant is Yesavage and the traded Khal Stephen, observers see a lot in him. His ERA is 4.13 at this level, but he has a K/9 (before Saturday's start) of 14.93 and hasn't allowed a single homer this season. I suspect he's very close to advancing to AA.  Also a Top 20 prospect on most lists, Fernando Perez established a new season high in innings Sunday night and is keeping runs off of the board but his K/9 rate is down and his H/9 rate is up. Some question how well his game will hold up as he moves into the upper minors. Still, on Sunday he twirrled his best game of the year, tossing six one-hit innings with no walks and seven strikeout to lower his ERA to 3.19 on the year. With caveats about A ball relievers in mind, Javen Coleman has a 1.69 ERA and a 14.63 K/9 since moving up from Dunedin where he had mixed results. 

More and more people are noticing Ed Duran. He finally got the call to Vancouver after the All Star break and he turned up in the Top 20 on both the MLB Pipeline list and Baseball America's. He left Dunedin with an .817 OPS and a growing reputation as a promising defensive catcher. Another guy who got that post-break promotion was Canadia 2B Sam Shaw (#26 per Pipeline) who had an .801 in Dunedin. Has some speed, gets on base, not just a singles hitter.

With Johnny King joining the D-Jays he pretty much automatically becomes the ace. There's a spike in the walk rate which is probably an anomaly since the promotion (this is the time of year when high-school draftees start to deal with some fatigue) but the strikeout are still there (40 in 21 IP for Dunedin) and he's got a 1.71 ERA in spite of the walks. But he's not the only guy having success. There's Austin Cates, last year's 7th round choice, who got off to a wobbly start but flipped a switch on May 11. In 57.2 IP since, he's got a 2.03 ERA with 58K and 21 walks. And don't overlook Silvano Hechavarria. The 22 year old Cuban righty has only gotten better since he moved over from the complex. To go with a 1.99 ERA, his rates are just as impressive. A 9.74 K/9, a tidy 1.87 BB/9 along with a 7.41 H/9 support that ERA across the board. Definitely some hilum here. Landen Maroudis has now appeared in seven games since returning from his TJ rehab and while he's been having the stereotypical struggles with staying in the zone that many pitchers have when they first come back it's worth noting that if you take out one of those (in which he was charged with 6 runs in 1.1 innings) he otherwise has a 2.11 ERA which is an impressive result given the 19 walks in 21.1 IP. He will likely only get better and may explode next spring.

The FCL Jays actually won the league championship, a first for the organization, which would make you think they were loaded with talent. Well...meh? First Baseman David Beckles, who's old for the league at 21, was the offensive force here with an .871 OPS while leading the squad with eight homers.  A more highly regarded prospect is RF Yorman Licourt (also 21) who had a tremendous May and a horrible June. He's said to have a lot of power potential. The most highly ranked guy here, though not so much as he has been in the past, is bonus baby Emmanuel Bonilla. His offensive struggles continued but he was marginally better in July than he had been in the last couple of years. Not, ya know, actually GOOD though.  

With Johnny King promoted, my pick among the remaining pitchers is Troy Guthrie. He finished the season with a 2.28 ERA His K/9 rate of 7.28 is low for a guy that you want to get excited about, but a 1.45 BB/9 will certainly catch your eye. Or maybe it's another control artist, Sann Omosako, who has a BB/9 of 0.82 (against 7.98 K/9) and he finished strong allowing three earned runs in 19 IP (1.42 ERA) over his last five regular season starts striking out 16 while walking no one. Then tacked on five more shutout innings to win a playoff game. With Eric Pardinho released, the title of Great Brazilian Hope falls to Omosako.

The Jays are running two DSL teams this year, designated Red and Blue and as far as statistical results go, the Red squad is having the better of it. Rather than separate discussions I'll just treat them as one since the distinction really doesn't matter. The best hitter (statistically) by a good measure is SS/3B Juan Sanchez (signed to the second highest bonus in January) who currently owns a .924 OPS and leads all Blue Jays in the DSL with 6 homers. Another January signing is impressing for the red squad, second baseman Elaineiker Coronado who has an impressive 48 walks against just 20 strikeouts which leads to an .843 OPS despite hardly any power yet. Another name to watch is catcher Franklin Rojas He was the top January signing in 2024 and has an .830 OPS. More on-base than power at this point but a catcher that can get on base isn't common in the Dominican. 

Identifying promising pitchers in the DSL is basically impossible from the outside, and the only tiny glimmer can be found in whether a reasonable ERA is accompanied by interesting K/BB rates. Angel Rivero, on the blue squad, is maybe the only guy currently ticking that box. There are  few guys on the red squad who are trending towards being worth a mention. Next time maybe.